Syracuse, NY - A state arbitrator's decision is forcing the city of Syracuse to pay out hundreds of thousands of dollars to 77 police officers.

The benefit, which expires next month, was the result of a 2009 grievance by the police union against the city.

So far, the city has paid out $165,791 to 55 officers who retired before the October ruling by the state Public Employees Relations Board.

Another 22 officers will also get an incentive for leaving before the July deadline, said William Ryan, chief of staff to Mayor Stephanie Miner. Five were retiring this week alone and all but one are retiring before July 1.

"For the most part, the guys retiring are doing it because there's a motivation to do it now," Ryan said, adding that the incentive was created by the arbitrator, not the city. "We did not have any incentive program to have police officers or anyone else retire."

The incentive has not been calculated for the 22 officers retiring before the July deadline, Ryan said.

The large number of retirements -- there will be at least seven this month alone -- will leave the department with 446 sworn officers next month. That's the lowest number of officers in recent memory, Ryan said. Another 50 positions remain budgeted but unfilled, and there are no current plans to hire new recruits.

Ryan said while there are a smaller number of officers, police Chief Frank Fowler has deployed more of them into the neighborhoods.

"Given the fact there are more people out of (police headquarters) and on the streets, and the financial situation of the city of Syracuse, I'm comfortable" with the number of officers remaining, Ryan said.

The retiree payouts stem from a grievance filed in 2009 by the Syracuse Police Benevolent Association, which wanted the city to pay the full amount of an officer's compensatory time upon retirement.

Comp time is accumulated hours that an officer takes off at a later date instead of being paid overtime.

While the union contract capped the amount of comp time at 480 hours, that rule was not enforced dating back to the Roy Bernardi administration, Ryan said.

The union argued that its members were entitled to be paid for all of their comp time upon retirement because, in practice, the city had allowed officers to bank more hours than they should have.

The arbitrator ruled in favor of the union on Oct. 17, Ryan said. The city is required to pay out a retiree's comp time for the first 1,200 hours, plus partial payments for the next 1,800 hours, Ryan said.

The 1,200 hours is equivalent to 30 weeks of full-time work. The city has enforced the cap at 480 hours of comp time since Jan. 1 of this year, Ryan said.